Saturday, April 26, 2014

Exar Corporation, which supplies analog mixed-signal, video and data management solutions, agreed to acquire Integrated Memory Logic Limited (iML), a provider of analog mixed-signal solutions for the flat panel display market. Exar will pay acquire all of the outstanding shares of iML for NT$91.00 (approximately US$3.00) per iML share in cash and acquire any remaining shares at NT$91.00 per share pursuant to a follow-on merger. The gross transaction value will be NT$6.8 billion (approximately US$223 million), or NT$3.1 billion (approximately US$94 million), net of cash acquired.
Exar said the iML acquisition supports Exar's strategy of building a large scale diversified analog mixed-signal business.

"The acquisition of iML will increase the diversity of the markets we serve and add highly differentiated analog mixed-signal and power management products to our portfolio. iML is a leading provider of power management and color calibration solutions for large and medium-sized flat panel displays in the LED television market as well as high-resolution tablets. The company serves customers in Korea, Taiwan, Japan and China, which will enhance Exar's existing presence in these markets. Additionally, iML has demonstrated consistent profitability and gross margins that reflect the value of the company's differentiated products," said Louis DiNardo, Exar President and CEO.

Samsung Electronics began mass producing the industry’s first high-performance, three-bit-NAND-based SSD for servers and data centers.

The new PM853T SSD, available in densities of 240GB, 480GB and 960GB, offers high levels of random IOPS (inputs/output per second) performance and quality of service (QoS).

Samsung said the new SSDs will allow data centers to better manage workloads related to social networking, web browsing and email, and enhance operation efficiency. Installations of the 3-bit MLC (multi-level-cell) NAND SSDs, initially in large-scale data centers, are expected to begin later this quarter.

“Following the last year’s introduction of 3-bit NAND-based SSDs for PC markets, our new 3-bit SSD for data centers will help considerably in expanding the market base for SSDs,” said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales and marketing, Samsung Electronics. “We expect SSD market growth will gain momentum as this new SSD delivers significant improvements in data center investment efficiency, leading to full-fledged commercialization of SSDs in IT systems later this year.”

Worldwide revenue for mobile device security client software is up 10% sequentially in 4Q13, to $385 million, and is projected to continue to grow rapidly in coming years, according to a new report from Infonetics Research.

“The triple threat of bring-your-own-device (BYOD) as a dominant enterprise trend, an increasingly hostile threat environment, and the deluge of frightening revelations about privacy courtesy of the NSA is forcing enterprises and consumers to invest real money in mobile device security. The mobile device security software market grew 40% to cross the billion-dollar mark in 2013 and we expect it to grow to $3.4 billion in 2018,” says Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics Research.

Some additional highlights of the report:

Asia Pacific accounted for 34% of security client revenue in 2013, followed closely by North America (32%) and EMEA (31%); Latin America came in a very distant fourth

Though North America greatly lags behind EMEA and Asia Pacific in total smartphone shipments, it has strong security client adoption relative to the other regions

In 2013, enterprise mobile clients comprised 51% of the total security client market, while consumer mobile security clients made up 49%.

Telefónica Movistar TV acquired exclusive broadcast rights for the Spanish market for the 546 official matches between European teams in the qualifying stages for UEFA EURO 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Movistar TV already had rights for the main club competitions.

In addition, the new Movistar TV channel dedicated to international football means an expansion of self-produced programming on the television platform.